Tom Wilson has never been one to stay in a single lane. He is a JUNO Award-winning musician, a bestselling author, a playwright, a Member of the Order of Canada, and an advocate for Indigenous visibility. He is also, without question, one of Canada’s most powerful visual artists. His latest solo exhibition, Blood Memory, opens at Beckett Fine Art in Hamilton, Ontario, from June 5 to 28, 2025, with a public reception on June 7 from 1 to 4 p.m. This is not just an art show. It is a reckoning, a reflection, and a revelation.
Following the sold-out success of his 2024 solo exhibition at Beckett Fine Art—a rare achievement for any Canadian artist—Wilson returns with a new body of work that confronts history and memory with the same intensity he brings to his music and writing. Blood Memory draws on Wilson’s journey of identity, heritage, and rediscovery, themes that have underscored much of his creative output since the release of his memoir Beautiful Scars.
The title of the exhibition, Blood Memory, speaks to the ancestral knowledge that lives in the body and spirit. Through vivid oil paintings, Wilson explores the lasting echoes of his Mohawk heritage, and the complicated beauty of reclaiming one’s story. The exhibition will feature new works, as well as select rare early paintings.
The timing of the exhibition is especially meaningful. June marks National Indigenous People’s Day in Canada, and Wilson’s work offers a deeply personal perspective on what it means to carry Indigenous identity forward through art, language, and storytelling. Visitors are encouraged to speak with Wilson at the opening reception about his artistic process, his thoughts on cultural memory, and what lies ahead.
This exhibition comes during a time of continued national recognition for Wilson. In 2024, he was shortlisted for the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Tom Hendry Award for Beautiful Scars: The Musical. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from McMaster University and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Music at the International Peace Festival, both in the Fall of 2024. Coinciding with these accolades, Wilson has released a new version of his song “Death Row Love Affair”, an alternative take that serves as a preview of a forthcoming album. The song, which was a powerful closer in the stage musical Beautiful Scars, has been reimagined as a haunting, introspective track produced by Gary Furniss, with contributions from Thompson Wilson, Jesse O’Brien, and Aaron Goldstein.
More than a musician or a writer or a painter, Tom Wilson is a storyteller across mediums. With Blood Memory, he invites audiences to stand still, look closely, and feel the weight and wonder of stories that have waited too long to be told.
Blood Memory runs from June 5 to 28, 2025, at Beckett Fine Art, located at 196 Locke Street South in Hamilton, Ontario. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, June 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. A sample of the artwork will be available online at www.beckettfineart.com starting April 10.